HS baseball, softball roundup

HS BaseballErie-Prophetstown 8Annawan-Wethersfield 4, The Titans opened the 2013 season with a loss on their home diamond to the Panthers Thursday.“It showed,” said A-W coach Jeff Parsons of his team’s first trip outside this spring, “but E-P is going to win a ton of ballgames. We were just glad to get outside — win, lose or draw.”E-P drew first blood, turning a leadoff triple into the game’s first run in the top of the third. The Titans answered in the bottom half, with Trey Hannam scoring on a Tyler Litton double to knot the score 1-1.The Panthers regained the lead, on the strength of consecutive RBI singles to right field, 4-1 in the top of the fourth.E-P tacked on four insurance runs in the top of the seventh, and ended up needing that cushion as the Titans mounted a rally in their last at-bat.Litton delivered another RBI double, followed by a run-scoring groundout from Kegan Jacobson and an RBI single by Zach VanWassenhove to trim the deficit to 8-4. But E-P freshman hurler Jordan Chandler ended the game with a pair of strikeouts to preserve the win.Chandler was the winning pitcher, while Trevor Lay took the loss for A-W.Litton, Hannam and VanWassenhove accounted for all six of A-W’s hits with two apiece.Parsons scattered the pitching duties Thursday with Matt Jenkins starting and throwing two innings, Litton throwing two innings, and Cody Phillips, Lay and Tony Gripp pitching one each.“I knew they would be tough to open with, but we were just so glad to be out on the diamond,” said Parsons. “Now we’ve got conference coming up and usually we have 10 games under our belt, and now we have one. It’s off to West Prairie Saturday.”“We’ll be better. That was a good team that beat us and they put the ball in play,” said Parsons. “One game does not define a year.”

HS SoftballErie-Prophetstown 10,Annawan-Wethersfield 9The host Panthers forced extra innings with one run in the bottom of the seventh, and pushed across the game-winning run in the bottom of the ninth Thursday at Erie.Kailynn Osborne put Annawan-Wethersfield in front 9-8 with a three-run double in the top of the seventh, but the Lady Titans couldn’t hold the lead.Morgan VanHyfte led A-W with three hits, followed by Osborne, Celina VanHyfte, Megan Foes and Kaila Dunfee with two hits each.In addition to Osborne’s three RBI, knocking in runs for the Lady Titans were Morgan VanHyfte, Celina VanHyfte, Foes and Rachael Peterson with one apiece.Morgan VanHyfte and Celina VanHyfte scored two runs each for A-W.

Stark County 8, Kewanee 2Elizabeth Hippen excelled at the plate and on the mound for the Lady Rebels Thursday in Wyoming.Hippen had two hits and knocked in two runs, and tossed a complete game with 13 strikeouts in the season opener for both teams.Kewanee took the lead 2-1 in the top of the third with RBIs from Paige Reeser and Ashley Folgers, but the Lady Rebels regained the lead for good with four runs in the bottom half of the inning to make it 5-2.Stark County tacked on a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth to seal the win.Chelsea Knobloch had two hits for the Lady Rebels, and Alysa Kohler knocked in a run.Folger and Jenifer Ensley had two hits each for the Boiler Girls.Reeser took the loss for Kewanee, allowing seven hits and walking four in six innings of work.Hippen allowed six hits and walked two en route to the victory.